Slain woman's family angry with Montreal police

The grieving family members of a young woman slain by a gunman at Dawson College are angry with Montreal police, accusing officials of waitingtoo long to tell her parents their daughter had died.

The incident began shortly before 1 p.m. Wednesday, but police did not inform the family about Anastasia DeSousa's death until late Wednesday night, said her uncle Pierre Hevey.

"It took long, it took too long to tell us. It happened in the afternoon. I told my parents around 10:30 that night," he said in an interview Thursday.

"We're mad. We're pissed mad," said Hevey.

DeSousa's life ended in the mayhem that swept through Dawson College Wednesday, after a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle stormed into the school and opened fire.

DeSousa's family described the agony they experienced in the hours after the shooting, when they frantically tried to find DeSousa in the chaotic scene at the college.

Throughout the afternoon, the family called DeSousa's cellphone repeatedly. Eventually they contacted the phone company, which tracked the phone to Dawson College.

"The only thing we knew, she was at Dawson, by the phone. But we figured maybe the phone was there and she was gone," said her uncle Réal Hevey.

The family learned DeSousa had been hurt in the shooting when her aunt spoke to the young woman's friends.

"They got splattered with her blood," Natalie Hevey said on Wednesday night, when she was interviewed at a Montreal hospital, where she was looking for her niece.

"It is proven she did get shot."

But no hospital had admitted DeSousa.

What the family didn't know at that point was DeSousa never made it to a hospital. She had been dead for hours, her body left inside the college, as police scrambled to secure the campus area.

Montreal paramedics who found DeSousa in the school minutes after the shooting started say there was nothing they could do to revive her. Police removed her body around 6 a.m. Thursday morning, more than 16 hours after she had died.

A popular student

DeSousa, known to those close to her as "Stacey," was bright, trilingual and a popular business student who had recently celebrated her 18th birthday.

Her extended family, speaking out for the first time on Thursday, said she had dreams of pursuing an international career, and that her favourite colour was pink.

"She was full of life. She wanted to go around the world," said Pierre Hevey in an interview. "She was a good girl."

While DeSousa's family searches for answers, they also say the shock of her death has not yet sunk in.

"It's hard for us," said Pierre Hevey.

It's also hard for the young woman's friends, who say DeSousa was an outgoing, fun-loving girl who fancied dancing and fashion, and could brighten a room with her smile.

"She lit up the place where ever she was," said her friend, Cory Novak, who added he spent a lot of time with DeSousa.

He was with her hours before she died. When a mutual friend called Novak with the news, he says he broke down "really badly."

DeSousa's family said it's too early to think of funeral plans.

DeSousa is survived by her parents andtwo siblings, a younger brother and a sister.